People Who Flipped Their Opinions On Extremely Controversial Topics Explain Why They Did

People Who Flipped Their Opinions On Extremely Controversial Topics Explain Why They Did
[rebelmouse-image 18357886 is_animated_gif=People can have very strong opinions on certain subjects. But even though they may think they'll never change their minds about their deeply held beliefs, sometimes they do.
Reddit user morieu asked "People who 'switched sides' in a highly divided community (political, religious, pizza topping debate), what happened that changed your mind? How did it go?"
Here are the insights into people who jumped from one side of the fence to the other.
Union Dues
[rebelmouse-image 18357887 is_animated_gif=My family used to be middle income. I used to be super pissed about those "damn unions" when they were striking, called thise taking gov support "leeches" etc.
After the 2008 financial crisis ,my family lost a huge amount of their income due to no fault of their own, and my career took a huge downturn. Meanwhile workers rights were completely dismantled, trying to turn the country more "competitive" and as a result I had shitty wages and almost no protection from bosse's predation. The phrases "Just be happy I even pay you" or " There are thousands waiting at the door just like you" become the norm in pretty much every job. Work rights that are absolutely standard everywhere dissapeared overnight.
Since then the only thing that allowed us to keep our head above the water have been government support with health plans, free training trying to get back to the work force, protection from eviction etc.
I am hardcore social democrat now, and I can see were communists come from, even if I don't agree with a lot of stuff the philosophy entails.
TP Orientation
[rebelmouse-image 18357888 is_animated_gif=Toilet paper over or under. I used to be in the IDGAF camp until I realized under was Satan's work.
Over all the way now.
Nothing Fishy
[rebelmouse-image 18357889 is_animated_gif=Fishing. I used to an very avid catch and release angler, fished with some of the best, was in a few magazines etc etc. I started to look a bit closer as to what I was doing, how many fish survive after catching and releasing them and came to the conclusion that though it's fun for me (at the time) it probably wasn't all that much fun for the fish. My regular group of fishing friends who were a fun and very talented, knowledgable bunch, mostly conservation minded guys just couldn't understand my change of heart. I now fished only to keep, which they thought was wrong but I never over harvested and always kept to the limits allowed or just a couple for supper, freezer, whatever. I'm not sure what changed my mind but I just started feeling bad about how I was hurting another living being for nothing more than essentially bragging rights and my own pleasure.
Leaving Bigotry Behind
[rebelmouse-image 18357890 is_animated_gif=In 2006 in Tennessee I voted for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, and I deeply regretted that later, and was very glad when SCOTUS overturned it.
The reason I voted that way is pretty simple though, religion. At the time I was a Christian, and thought being gay was a sin, and that as a result they shouldn't be allowed to marry. Later, when I deconverted, there wasn't any struggle about the gay marriage issue at all, because I never actually had anything against gay people, even when I was a Christian, but I was just following my belief system.
Without that belief system it was sort of a no-brainer that they should have the same rights as everyone else, and that there's no logical argument against being gay, and that I was the one who did that wrong thing when I helped to take away their rights, not them.
No Mo' GMO No
[rebelmouse-image 18357892 is_animated_gif=GMOs. I used to feel that they were "unnatural" and therefore bad. After getting a chemistry degree and spending a lot of my personal time studying food science, as well as working on farms and gardening, I think that genetic solutions to farming can be great.
I still think that big farming is rife with horrible practices, and some companies exploit GMOs and patents on GMOs to the detriment of humanity, but I can no longer subscribe to the GMOs=evil point of view.
Regrets
[rebelmouse-image 18357893 is_animated_gif=Wisconsin had an election in 2006 where a ballot item called Referendum 1 would decide whether marriage between a man and a woman would constitutionally be the only legal form of marriage accepted and allowed in Wisconsin. It passed with 59% of the voters voting yes and the state Constitution was amended. I voted yes.
Shortly afterward, I started thinking. A lot. I started to realize that many of my friends were gay and I was friends with their partners. They were happy. They adopted kids. They volunteered for the fire department. They were nurses. I started realizing that their homosexuality didn't define their being. I was foolish and ashamed.
By 2011, I deeply regretted how I voted. Who was I to judge how people were supposed to live their lives and who they could marry? Within a 5 year period of time, I completely changed my mind. A new movement to get the amendment ruled unconstitutional was formed and I found myself supporting the group. In mid-2015, the US Supreme Court declared the referendum was illegal.
6,000 Years
[rebelmouse-image 18357894 is_animated_gif=I was raised to believe in creationism. Specifically, young earth creationism. That's right, my parents taught me that the Earth was something like 6000 years old, and that concepts like speciation or human evolution were not true. I had the whole nine yards: Sunday school to reinforce it, the Discovery Institute to tell me science was wrong, pastors to re-enforce it.
The degree to which they controlled the information that I consumed was pretty f---- up as well. I remember my great grandparents giving us a bunch of those old Time-Life books, one of which was the Life Nature Library series. One of these books happened to be on evolution (my parents did not review the books before letting me at them), and being a 7 year old science geek I read it. I remember showing it to a friend of mine, and explaining the patterns associated with human evolution, and when my mother overheard this, she snatched the book from my hands. My parents later told that everything in that book was completely untrue, and I believed them.
Unfortunately for my parents, being a science geek, I eventually ended up in AP Biology. In that class I was totally ready and fired up to argue against the teacher whenever human evolution came up. What ended up happening was a reasonable explanation regarding our origins, with piles of evidence to back it up. That course changed my mind about evolution, and once that happened I started to question God's existence.
My conversion to atheism was a long and drawn out process, that ended with me moving out of my parents place. Things are better now, as my parents have decided that having me in their lives is more important than me believing in god.
Live & Let Live
[rebelmouse-image 18357895 is_animated_gif=I'm a conservative and used to be really homophobic until I realized I live in a country founded on personal freedoms and we shouldn't decide whoever someone wants to marry. Still a conservative but couldn't give 2 bits if you are gay or not.
Dungeons & Denominations
[rebelmouse-image 18357896 is_animated_gif=I used to be an active member of my church. (I'd experienced a near death experience when I was a child and was reaching out to try to better understand what happens to a person when they die.)
One thing my youth pastor was adamant about was that D&D was a gateway for the devil. He used to talk about his younger days when he was a teen and he tried D&D and how the devil would reach through him and act through him and his friends. He says he stopped when the devil tricked him into thinking his friend was a demon, and he tried to kill his friend.
My brother was getting into D&D at this time, so this was particularly worrisome. It lead to a great deal of fighting between me and my brother.
Over time I kept watching for signs of the devil in my brother and never really found any. I started taking a closer look at the books and trying to suss out what the threat was. But couldn't find one.
Then I started pressing my youth pastor and people who knew him for more information. Eventually my youth pastor slipped up and mentioned that he'd frequently drop acid while playing D&D.
Suddenly everything made a lot more sense.
The Last Straw
[rebelmouse-image 18357897 is_animated_gif=I've pretty much stopped using straws at/from restaurants.
I know it sounds stupid and small, but the plastic pollution stuff is getting to me and I am not a "green" type of person at all... so it's a big deal to me if for nothing else than personal growth. As time goes on, and pretty much every time I take out the trash, I'm reminded of how utterly wasteful everything is. Baby steps I guess...
Right to Life and Death
[rebelmouse-image 18357900 is_animated_gif=I used to think that it was awful that people ever died, or wanted to die. I thought that it was normal and natural to want to fight for ever last moment, every last breath, even if it wasn't quite great.
Then I got into medicine and nursing. Now I understand how valuable death is in life, how important it is that we have that choice and that option. There truly are some times where the life you are living is truly awful suffering, and it's cruel to expect people to continue on with it. It's cruel to ask somebody who will never move again to continue living that way just so we don't feel bad. Death is important sometimes. It saves us from when life goes very very bad.
Disconnect
[rebelmouse-image 18357901 is_animated_gif=I grew up in an uber-religious family. Church 3 times a week with classes and meetings in between. Everything we did was for the lord. When I started getting older, however, I started realizing that what was being taught wasn't quite what I believed in.
Love thy neighbor turned into Love thy neighbor as long as they're not gay.
Help the needy turned into I've got mine, so politely go f yourself.
Only God can judge you turned into everyone judging everyone about everything and church politics took over.
Do unto others? Lets go tattle to the preacher and complain until someone is kicked from the church.
Most people fell in line and never really looked into what was being taught vs what the bible said. It was seriously like a cult of like-minded beings and since I was critically thinking about it, they turned on me as well.
I couldn't see how horrible things were until I was away from it all. Its like getting lost in a maze and not being able to figure out where to turn. Once you get out, climb that cliff, and look back down, you realize every corner and wrong turn made and you can't believe how caught-up in that mess you were.
I moved out of state and married a wonderful guy. I don't talk to part of my family anymore.
Fission Revision
[rebelmouse-image 18357902 is_animated_gif=I used to be against nuclear power, so I then decided to research it for school and it turned out it might be the best we've got until renewable resources get further in their development.
I don't think it's the best long term, but I don't think it's the devil no more. My parents who were green wavers during the seventies are very mad at me for this.
Important Issues
[rebelmouse-image 18348527 is_animated_gif=Certain themes of conversation
Resonate around the nation -
Small contentions oft repeated
Make for altercations heated.
Let us talk of all religions -
Add a dash or half a smidgen's
Pinch of doctrine hard to swallow -
Watch the chaos shortly follow.
Let us talk of state and power -
Add a drop of Donald's tower,
Daily news and contradiction -
Settle back and watch the friction.
Soon you'll find you're off debating,
Ranting, raving, raging, hating,
Never ending,
never stopping.
... let us talk of pizza topping.
Respect Gained
[rebelmouse-image 18357903 is_animated_gif=I was a hardcore anti-theist since I was a teenager, basically a rebellion against my strict religious upbringing. When I was in college an older family friend of ours relapsed into drugs and started f*ing his life up, losing his family and house. My parents invited him to their church and he gradually turned his life around thanks to his spiritual "rebirth." I'm still not a believer, but I have a greater respect for the social utility of religion after seeing what a turnaround that dude made.
Herbal
[rebelmouse-image 18349305 is_animated_gif=Cilantro. I absolutely could not stand the soap-like flavor for 20+ years. Entire stalks slapped on my Thai entrees, bits in the guacamole, haunted my dreams and damn near ruined Thanksgiving one year. Then one day, like magic, the soapy fog lifted. I have no idea what happened. I absolutely love the stuff now.
Reprogrammed
[rebelmouse-image 18357904 is_animated_gif=I used to think programming was dumb and computers were ridiculous for not being more intuitive. Then I spent 11 years working with people and realized they're worse. Now I'm stressed and can't remember how to program anymore.
Grammar Police Retiree
[rebelmouse-image 18357905 is_animated_gif=I used to be a die hard grammatical prescriptivist. There was a right way to talk and that was that. THERE ARE RULES!.
Over time I realized the rules are more or less arbitrary and the point of language is to communicate ideas, not follow strict rules. Whether you follow every rule in the MLA handbook or u talk liek dis all da tiem is irrelevant, as long as the listener understands the speaker's intent.
Anti-Vax No More
[rebelmouse-image 18357906 is_animated_gif=Used to be extremely anti-vaccination. Now quite in favor. What changed my mind? I had a baby and had to make that decision for someone other than myself. I dove into the research and did a lot of soul searching. It was really just a problem with ignorance on my part. We are all fully vaccinated now.
Expanding the Playlist
[rebelmouse-image 18357907 is_animated_gif=I used to hate country but then I discovered the banjo and bluegrass and turns out what I hate is modern country.
Depending on the job, non-office employees work tirelessly to push through with their physically-demanding tasks despite their fatigue to earn that paycheck.
But in their exhaustion, judgments can be impaired and exhausted workers can be vulnerable to workplace hazards.
And when an accident occurs while on company property, it's a devastating predicament that can have long-term effects.
Curious to hear job horror stories, Redditor Bwrice asked:
"What’s a work related accident that still haunts you to this day?"
"Beware of falling objects" was the last thing on these workers' minds.
Do Pets Miss Their Owners?
"While building Levi Stadium, a trucker was unloading rebar when the entire pile fell on him, impaling him multiple times and also crushing him."
"I never met the man, but his cat and elderly dog ended up a a local shelter. We planned to adopt the dog and ended up taking home the cat too because we didn't want to split them."
"Nena (the dog) passed away in her sleep in 2017 about 2 years after we brought her home. Seal (the cat) is around 7 years old now and doing just fine."
"I've always wondered if they ever thought of him."
– ryneaeiel
I Scream
"Worked for Edy's Ice Cream. My truck was loaded wrong so at a stop had to shimmy between pallets to get to the back pallet."
"Was unloading the top pallet and the pallet below collapsed. The top pallet slid on to me. But since I was between 2 waist high pallets about 1200lbs of ice cream bent me at the waist the wrong way."
"Sort of like bending over normally, backwards."
"Ended up with 2 broken vertebrae, nerve damage and was not fun."
"Eventually got a six disc fusion and was able to walk again."
"But now I have arthritis in my back and it really hurts most of the time. I also have numb areas in my right thigh and my whole lower back."
"Would not recommend."
– Im_too_old
Fatal Collapse
"Trench collapse. Guy was pinned mid chest. Not good but not immediately fatal. Guy’s coworkers freak out and use the backhoe to dig him out. Ended up catching him with the teeth on the bucket. Essentially cut him in half."
"The guy on the backhoe was his brother."
"Dude would have probably been alright had they rescued him the right way."
– Flame5135
Drowning in Molasses
"Not me, but at the cookie factory where my brother worked a worker died when someone accidentally dumped out a massive mixer full of molasses on top of him. He suffocated before they could dig him out."
– brainbarker
No one ever expected these jabs to happen.
Implementation Of A Rule
"Engineer decided to open a parcel with a Stanley knife, not sure if he slipped or what angle he was cutting at but BAM! Stanley knife in the eye. Never saw him again but h&s quickly introduced a policy that safety goggles needed to be worn when opening boxes"
– Quizzical_Chimp
Ruined Wedding Gown
"Used to be a wedding caterer. While the bride and groom were going to cut the cake it started to fall off the table as they were both trying to catch this ridiculously huge thing the bride slipped, fell into a pyramid of wine glasses on a foldout table behind her... The table collapsed and a wine glass stem pierced her neck."
"She survived, but she was not gonna be able to take that gown back to the rental place... I've never seen so much blood in my life."
– DanteWolfe0125
These accidents were uniquely different from the common examples above, but horrific, nonetheless.
Mad At The Machine
"I dunno if you can call this an accident but I was working with this guy and outta nowhere he says 'I'm sick of working here, check this out' and jammed his foot into the gears on the machine. Completely mangled his foot. Saw him 20 years later and his foot was still f'ked."
"He was looking for a couple weeks of workers comp, got a lifetime disability instead. It was pretty horrific."
– KingGuy420
Bashed In The Face
"Work in a dealership and once a tech was using a tool that broke free bashing him in the face, knocking out multiple teeth, splitting his lip and breaking his nose…it was a bloody mess. Young kid, with balls of steel appearantly. While waiting for an ambulance he was sitting there talking and smiled to show the damage. That smile was horrifying. He recovered and got a ton of dental work and still works there."
– smallboxofcrayons
"I was a cashier in a grocery store. One of my fellow cashiers was a senior, just killing time in retirement. One day, she had a dizzy spell, collapsed, and cracked her head open on the floor. Paramedics were called, and as they were loading her into the ambulance, she was crying out that she could still finish her shift."
– originalchaosinabox
Aviation Disasters
"I used to fly small airplanes in north west Alaska. In the two years I worked there I knew three pilots that died in crashes."
"Don’t miss how those days felt."
– SweatyMooseKnuckler
Severed Digits
"Coworker, who was fresh out of trade school was using a table saw to cut 1” thick sheets of plastic into strips. It was cold so he put on some leather work gloves."
"A glove got caught and pulled his hand into the saw, nearly severing his right index and middle fingers."
"He came to me and said, 'uh, I think I cut my hand'. It literally looked like a package of pork ribs - all mangled bone and tissue."
"They were able to save the fingers, but they’re non functional and don’t bend."
– funtobedone
Working in theater, I've seen my share of fellow performers getting injured.
From theme parks to Broadway, the things actors do for the sake of entertaining audiences are nothing short of risky.
Anything can go wrong when actors rush backstage for a quick costume change or when they rely solely on the mechanics of set pieces to move efficiently.
A good friend of mine was the victim of the latter, when he expected the bottom of the trap door would be clear of a moveable stair case when jumped in as he always did at a particular moment during a theme park show.
He landed on a staircase that hadn't been switched out for the airbag because of a crew member's incompetence.
My friend sustained several non life-threatening injuries but survived.
The things we do for art...
They say you can never have enough of a good thing, but we all know there's plenty of stuff that you'd like to just go, "Oh, no thank you" about and that would be that.
Unfortunately, that pretty much never actually works.
Try telling the electric company "no thanks" when the way too high bill comes, or just putting up a hand to decline work for the next week or so because you're just kind of over it.
Consequences and repercussions, folks. But you've got to admit some stuff would just be better if it was... less.
Reddit user DuckyMomo_12 asked:
"What’s something that would be 100% better if it was slightly shorter?"
Time At Work
"Average work hours"
- friendofjay
"Seriously. My current company has us work 37.5 hour weeks with a paid hour lunch. I don’t know if I could go back to the 40 hour/unpaid 30 min lunch again. It seems like such a small change but it feels like a lot."
- cageygrading
"Everything is getting more expensive right now because of corporate greed. Don't buy the bs that it's just inflation."
"Your bosses are making profits and squeezing you for everything you're worth in the process. Remember that while you bust your @ss for them."
- ravenfire47
"So would you take a pay cut so you can work less?"
- Pathwil
"If you work less, yes. But if you do the same amount of work in less hours, no."
"I moved to US a the beginning of this year and that is something which drives me crazy. People are so inefficient when they work, here."
"Why not just do your job rapidly, with great care and concentration then leave to have your life?! I was in Germany, UK and France before and that's what people do. You do your job and when it's finished, around 3 or 4 pm, they just go home or to gym, or other places. Having time for you is the reward for working well."
- OnTheGoodSideofLife
"Yeah that's a good way to look at it"
- Pathwil
Unwanted Hair
"My nose hair."
- HunterRemarkable550
"Dude... tell me about it. I didn't need excessive nose hair at 26, why TF do I need it at 36."
"Seriously, I can trim for minutes and the next morning I got nose hairs coming out my nose tickling the sh*t out of me!"
"Oh and there is one cheeky hair all the way up in my left nostril that will grow all curled up in my nose and all of a sudden it just starts poking out, seriously now, this thing has grown to about 2 inches long. if i pull on it, I swear to god it feels like it tugs on either the back of my head or my left eye."
"I got nose hair for days."
- Osborne85
"I just bought a beard/hair trimmer that has a nose/ear hair accessory, my nose hairs weren't excessively long but I feel like it looks much better now!"
- radekvitr
"This is fortuitous cuz I wondered if I'd ever get to tell this story! Literally, cleaning/fixing things in my new home about 3 hours ago."
"My nose got tickled and I i couldn't rub it because I had wood glue gloved hands. So I'm washing up and staring in the mirror at all the stuff my (generally maintained, but neglected because I can't find sh*t) nose hairs kept out of my system. It was AMAZING! DUST WAS DANCING IN MY NOSE HAIR LIKE I'VE SPUN CHARLOTTE'S WEB."
"I, honestly, felt lucky to get a chance to appreciate my nose hair. And I hope 1 day you do, too. As for me? I'm still left in awe like that'll do, pig, that'll do."
- unbridledboredom
Lines For Fun
"Lines at any amusement park."
- TheNonMurderingSort
"Go during September or October. The lines are much shorter and the weather isn't too hot or cold"
- darkaurora84
"One year my father's company and maybe a couple others rented Disneyland for one night. There were enough people that it didn't feel empty, but not so many that we couldn't just walk right up and immediately get on any ride. I was old enough to be on my own."
- cutelyaware
"One of the big perks of staying at one of the Disney hotels is they have certain nights that the park closes for everyone but the people that are staying there. We chilled at the hotel for most of the day then went in late and walked up to every attraction we wanted. My kid loved space mountain and we must have ridden it 10 times in a row. Glorious."
- olcrazypete
Personal Height
"Me. I hate hitting my knees on the seat in front when using public transport"
- hdhdhdhdzjursx
"Tall gang represent. Got the opposite problem tho, 31 inch inseam, all my height is torso. Crack my head on every ceiling in every personal vehicle I've ever owned bar one"
- Megalon84
"I don’t fit on airlines. Flying sucks…"
- Jak_n_Dax
"Frequent festival go-er, I always stand in the back because I hate blocking other peoples view"
- Zymper
"You took the words right out my mouth"
- LateTeenAnubis
This One Is Advance
"Queues. This is a two for one, as the word queue would also be 100% better if it was shorter."
- kriminellart
"The word queue is just the letter Q with a bunch of extra letters waiting in line."
- ecodrew
"Underrated."
- PM_meyourGradyWhite
"I've seen people using 'cue' like 'cue up', but idk if they're just americans that suck at using the right word because we don't call lines 'queues' as often."
- souleaterevans626
Rest
"The amount of time you need to sleep"
- WomenAreNotReal
"How I wish 5 hours was enough..."
- 1ne3hree
"I honestly wish I could sleep more, maybe it would help with my loneliness. I usually need 6 or 7.5 h based on prior activity"
- Sad_But_Realistic
Court Appointees
"Supreme court appointments."
- Debasque
"Justices should serve an 18 year term, with each one staggered every two years."
"A: that is still plenty of time so that the court can be "above" politics, but a lot more sensible than a lifetime."
"B: it would eliminate this hair-on-fire panicked emergency that happens every time one of them suddenly dies and needs to be replaced. Every president gets to appoint two new justices per term like clockwork, predictable and calculable. No more political wrangling over who controls the Senate vs who is president vs how much time there is before the election and all that BS."
- DerCatzefragger
"Agreed. Lifetime is a bit much... I do believe in term limits across all branches of US govt . By all means make a difference for the people that voted for you or for the party that appointed you. But, a lifetime appointment. 🥺🙄"
- slowclicker
NFL
"Football (American) games. Especially things like replay reviews and timeouts after kickoffs and change of possession. Sure, guys would get more tired and worn down late in the games but that would be part of the strategy."
- sometimesimtoxic
"I grew up watching football with my dad. I always hated it (and still do) and always thought why do people enjoy watching a minute play with five minutes of whatever after before the next one, it's so goddamn boring to me."
- cozyroof
"A football game is played in 4 quarters, each 15 minutes long, with a 12 minute halftime in the middle. So do the math and a football game lasts. . . 3 friggin hours!?!? And the last 3 minutes of the 4th quarter accounts for 45 minutes of that time!"
- DerCatzefragger
"As a big American Football fan, I completely agree. I think the biggest culprits are the endless commercials but 3 hours is just too much. The players would adapt and you would likely see some reduction in size, especially on the line. Being 400 Lbs with that amount of PED assisted muscle is questionable as it is."
"Same thing with baseball but the purists like the pitchers taking 20 minutes before each pitch for whatever reason. I like Soccer too and watching a match get knocked out in 1.5 hours and getting on with my day is great."
- DustinAM
More Days To Enjoy
"Work week, 4 day work week, 3 day rest would be fantastic"
- Piemaster113
"I used to do 4 day work week, and I preferred it more than 5 day work weeks. Sure, I had to spend 10 hours at the office, but that 3rd day off gave me a day I could take my Mom to the doctor if needed."
- ryukin631
"The job I worked the longest at had me on a 4 on/4 off schedule. 12 hour days. I was there for 8 years, honestly loved that job, and one of the cool things about working 12 hour days for 8 years was that it made transitioning to 8 hour days a breeze. The downside was 2 day weekends f*cking suck."
- Mister_McGreg
"I would love that. You need the middle day. Then you get a day to rest/decompress, a day to have fun/do things, and a day to do chores/get sh*t in order for the week."
- pamplemouss
New Movies
"Most recently, Gray Man. They need to chill with the 2+ hour movies."
- olnog
"If the writers really knows what they are doing with the story and the actors nail the, well, acting, I don't mind 2hr movies."
"For me the main issue is that they tend to cut short, as if they halfway through filming realize that 'Oh shoot, this movie will end up 4hrs long'."
"I'd rather have a 4 episode mini-series with hour long episodes instead."
- ActualTechSupport
"I feel like any bollywood movie not clockin in at 3 hrs is pretty short. But the good ones make it seem short. Ex: Three Idiots, PK"
- rabid-
Which of these resonated with you most?
More importantly, what needs to be on this list that you don't see?
Gripe with me in the comments, folks! It's always a good time.
Life is a mystery full of mysteries.
Some we'll finally get, some will stay a conundrum forever.
Sometimes no matter how much we study or agonize over a piece of information, it just doesn't click.
But that's okay, we're all here to commiserate.
RedditorDangerous_Mobile9188 wanted to discuss what aspects of life still leave confusion.
"What do you genuinely not understand?"
Life is full of quandaries that I give up on trying to figure out.
Everywhere?
"Why people can't use a public restroom without literally pooping all over the freaking toilet."
Natural-School5690
Around the grooves...
"How a single needle can run through the grooves on a record and produce a fully layered and 'separated' sound. I mean, I get how it works in theory. But like... how TF does it work?"
LandofRy
"I know how it works, and I understand how it works, and I was gleefully trying to convey this knowledge to a friend when I realized that I am not able to explain how it works, which essentially means that I don’t actually get how it works."
smelllikesmoke
Meow Team
"The thought process of a cat trying to jump on a shelf that is clearly filled with stuff and doesn't have space for it to land safely."
Mikrosarvinen
"The opposite, actually... how on earth does my cat jump on a shelf filled with stuff and somehow always land elegantly with all four paws between all the stuff without dropping a single thing? It surprises me every time."
WanderingArtichoke
"50% of cats have a 6th sense to avoid everything and 50% of cats are clumsy as hell. 100% of cats think they have the skill though."
KneeHumper
Clueless
"How consciousness works."
DarthDinDjarin
"I'm shocked no one has replied to this. Because yea. I haven't the slightest clue and i honestly don't think scientists know exactly how either. Such a complex system that turns into our thoughts and feelings, this is one of those things that REALLY made me appreciate the intricacies of our bodies."
r-Newbiedonthurtme
10/10
"Every time my grandmother sees me, I seem to grow taller and more attractive."
JoeyMMuelle
I love grandmas. They understand everything.
S.O.S
"How people can raise a functioning family at the age of 18 or 19? I can't even hold my own life together."
Radioactivocalypse
Staying Put
"Squatter rights! They confuse the hell outta me."
roomtempcoff33
"Right! So you’re telling me, I can get evicted/foreclosed for missing some payments… but you can’t get rid of squatters who declare a house theirs ? I should just become a squatter then haha."
violet-ack
"Squatting is basically the same. It's not that they just get to live there, but the landlord has to use the proper legal mechanism (eviction) to get rid of them. And sometimes, that can take quite some time."
banality_of_ervil
"Steps"
"How crypto mining works... like what exactly are these huge setups doing and why do GPUs matter so much? I've read several articles about it and I still don't get it."
Tripper-Harrison
"This is an oversimplification, but they're trying to solve a math problem. If they get the answer, they get rewarded with crypto. But the math problem is very very hard. There's no 'steps' to find the answer, it's just guess and check."
"So you need to make as many guesses as possible to see if one of your guesses is right. And it just so happens that GPUs are very good at making these guesses. So if 1 GPU can make let's say 22,000 guesses every second, then two GPUs can make 44,000 guesses every second. 10 GPUs can make 220,000 guesses every second, and so on."
PierogiMachine
I'm Lost
"The wave-particle duality."
FishySwede
"This is the one man. For me this is the biggest mystery. Look, I don't care how the universe came to be. I mean I do, but this is much crazier to me. HOW DOES REALITY REACT DIFFERENTLY BASED ON OBSERVATION ALONE I sear this haunts me at night. Do i even exist man."
yungbandido
"Long story short, observing something at the quantum level is not as benign as observing, say, a runner on a racetrack. In observing something so small, the mere act of doing so affects the behavior/outcome. Imagine having to knock the aforementioned runner over in order to know where they are on the track. That's more or less how it was explained to me."
BaronMusclethorpe
Magic
"Cameras, I’ve been explained and seen explanations 100 times. It’s still magic to me."
Salty-Director538
Maybe there are just somethings we're not meant to understand.
Beauty.
We all want to attain it.
Some people dedicate their lives to having it.
But who can say what is and is not attractive?
The older you get, the more serious and realistic you get with the topic.
And grapple with whether it really matters.
RedditorBig-Courage-7297 wanted to know what some people really thought when they looked into a mirror.
"How hot do you think you are? Why?"
Depending on the minute and the era, I fluctuate in my response. Oh, and depending on my sodium intake.
Middle of the way...
"5, am not ugly nor a beauty."
son-of-sumer
"'Perfectly balanced, as all things should be' JK... you probably look great."
math_math99
Alright
"I give myself a solid 'alright for an old guy' out of 10."
TungstenkrillYup.
"Comparing myself to when I was young I feel like a 2. However if I look around at other guys my age, I'm doing pretty great. Simply still having a full head of hair puts me in the top 15%."
sarcasticorange
"Occupying the latter half of the age bracket here too. And while I’ve never considered myself wildly attractive, one of my wife’s work friends once remarked to her, 'you didn’t tell me your husband was a silver fox!' I keep that one in my back pocket for gloomy days."
Ryanbikes2
Mama Said...
"My mom said I'm a 10/10."
gamer25677
"His mom also said I’m a 10/10. Im starting to think she says that about everyone who’s been inside her."
AlwaysMooning
"Don't listen to these jealous haters you be that 10/10 and strut your stuff."
"Learning to love yourself, doesn't mean you don't see your own flaws but know where to improve and where and how you want to grow. Appreciate the goodness within even when it's hard, and work to have your ideal to be reflected on the outside too. Loving and forgiving yourself is the greatest peace you'll know, because everyone else might be gone at the end and you'll be left with you and your memories, make good ones. Spread positivity. 💕"
SevWagoner
Changes with time...
"I think most people's scores fluctuate with age. I like to think I was a solid 8/10 in my early 20s. Then my metabolism crashed and I was working a desk job. I got real fat, got lazy, less effort, dropped to a 4/10. Got my s**t back together, lost the weight, started putting in the effort again, back up to an 8 if not higher in my 30s."
"Then I had a traumatic event in my life and I slipped into a dark place for many years. I put on weight again, stopped putting in the effort, general depression stuff, 5/10. Now I'm in my 40s, working on keeping my weight down, putting in some effort, solid 6/10..."
"But no matter what has happened, how low or high I've been... my wife has always considered me a 10. She's the best woman I've ever met and will always be a 10 to me too."
Bannon9k
Oof...
"6 or 7 on a good day? 1 when I try to take a picture of myself."
baconpoutine89
God I hated picture day. Still do.
Bless You
"I have days where I think 'God da*n, look at me. I’m God’s gift,' and then other days where I think 'how does every mirror not break?'"
Conconharni
"Actually though. Part of it is I used to be super athletic but due to an injury now can’t, but go**amn, I could look quite literally like a sculpture of a Greek god or hero, but also a balding baby-faced creep. Also occasionally homeless. More often the two latter than the former"
Walshy231231
Getting Higher
"I think I was a 6 growing up. But now that I've matured into my late 30s I'm a solid 7."
Ok-Type9999
"This is me except as a kid I’d give myself a 3. Long-haired greaseball in my teens but now in my 30s, exercising for the past decade has really helped me out. Solid 7/10."
Fine-Difference-6896
"Man, I went from 4 to 8 to 5 in the span of 20 years. Metabolism is a *itch."
ELL_YAY
Bad Views
"I just remind myself that the me that looks bad in in some pictures/at some angles is the same me that looks good in other pictures/other angles, just a different version. There are some angles and types of lighting and mirrors that for whatever reason, will make just about anybody look bad. There is no such thing as someone who looks good when the phone camera opens itself and shows a view of you from under your chin."
StreetIndependence62
Boy Magnet
"I was objectively pretty hot when I was younger. Now I am an older hot, which is weird. Younger guys really dig me but I’m like, you weren’t even born when the Challenger blew up and I was at Uni."
dearabby1
We're all beautiful. Just keep saying that. Maybe it'll stick.